Matthew E. Henry- Poetry

“…it is not the stones, / But the child’s mound—"

A golden shovel from Robert Frost’s “Home Burial”

were it only true that tragedy howls in packs of three, 

I wouldn’t so curse my retention, wish my brain more foggy. 

I would find rest. far less tear-filled nights and red-eyed mornings

knowing there’s nothing to be done. I hold their hands and, 

in private, cry out to a brass sky—a heaven deafened to one 

who has never known the magic words. they say appreciate rainy 

weather for you never know when the drought will come—the day 

natural blessings cease to quaintly fall, the hour floodwaters will 

return with biblical accuracy and destroy your bedrock, rot 

home from beneath your feet. how “a” tragedy is not the same as “the” 

tragedy. how comfort is a frost-heaved road—laid with best 

intentions—taking a brother with high speed and an old birch 

unyielding as time, or God, when there is no hedge, no fence, 

no jersey barrier, no protection. nothing but the reminder of how “a” 

tragedy is not “the” tragedy to a teacher, a father, a brother, a man 

haunted by the bodies and the questions: has he done all he can?

is their collapse based on a foundation he has failed to build?

Matthew E. Henry (MEH) is the author of six poetry collections, most recently said the Frog to the scorpion (Harbor Editions, 2024). He is editor-in-chief of The Weight Journal, the creative nonfiction editor at Porcupine Literary, and an associate editor at Rise Up Review. MEH’s publications include Barren Magazine, Anti-Heroin Chic, Had, Massachusetts Review, Mayday, Mom Egg Review, Ploughshares, Redivider, Stone Circle Review, Terrain, Whale Road Review, and The Worcester Review. MEH is a high school teacher who received his MFA yet continued to spend money he didn’t have completing an MA in theology and a PhD in education. He writes about education, race, religion, and burning oppressive systems to the ground at www.MEHPoeting.com.